When did ‘the man of sin’ appear? How did the Papacy develop? What impact does futurism and preterism have on the Church? How is dispensationalism faulty? What did Gregory I (Gregory the Great) have to say about the Antichrist and the title of ‘Universal Bishop’? When did the papacy begin?

Is it possible to know who the true Antichrist is from the Bible or can we only speculate on who the man of sin is? What has been the consistent testimony from the early church to about 200 years ago? Is the Pope of Rome that man of sin and son of perdition, or is it some man to come in the future?

“There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalts himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God.”
-The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 25:6

Rick Warren was interviewed recently on the Roman Catholic TV Network EWTN. Did he defend Biblical truth? Did he call those within Rome’s walls to repentance or did he join hands once again with a false religion?
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“For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”
–Revelation 18:3-5

Should we expect a future temple or a third temple in Jerusalem? What is the ‘Temple of God’ in 2 Thessalonians 2:4? Who are the temple of God today in the new covenant? What are the implications of this on dispensational theology?
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“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
–2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.”
–John 2:19-21

“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
–Revelation 3:12

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
–Ephesians 2:19-22

Paul looks at the recent news of how pope Francis has been put on the cover of ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine and other prominent publications. How much has Francis changed in the church of Rome, if anything? How should Bible Believers respond to this man and his growing popularity in the media?
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“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie”
-2 Thessalonians 2:3-11

“Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer; in the seventeenth century, Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible and the men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith; Sir Isaac Newton… Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards; and more recently Charles Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones; these men among countless others, all saw the office of the Papacy as the antichrist.”
-Michael de Semlyen, All Roads Lead to Rome, p. 205